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Understanding Botnet Phenomenon. MITP 458 - Kevin Lynch, Will Fiedler, Navin Johri, Sam Annor, Alex Roussev. What is Botnet ?. Botnets is used to define networks of infectedend-hosts, called bots , that are under the control of a human operator commonly known as a bot master.
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Understanding Botnet Phenomenon MITP 458 - Kevin Lynch, Will Fiedler, Navin Johri, Sam Annor, Alex Roussev
What is Botnet ? • Botnets is used to define networks of infectedend-hosts, called bots, that are under the control of a human operator commonly known as a bot master. • Command and control channels are used to disseminate the commands to the bots • IRC (Internet Relay Chat Protocols) is the main vehicle
IRC Concept – RFC 1459 • IRC is an open protocol that uses TCP green – normal clients blue - bots orange - bouncers
IRC Concept – RFC 1459 • Example 1: A message between clients 1 and 2 is only seen by server A, which sends it straight to client 2. • Example 2: A message between clients 1 and 3 is seen by servers A & B, and client 3. No other clients or servers are allowed see the message. • Example 3: A message between clients 2 and 4 is seen by servers A, B, C & D and client 4 only.
How to Analyze Botnets? • Develop a scalable and robust infrastructure to capture and concurrently track multiple Botnets • Must be benign – not used to infect others outside the testing environment • Analysis of measurements, structural and behavioral aspect of Botnets • IRC tracking, DNS Cache probing (minimal)
Birth of a Bot • Bots are born from program binaries that infect your PC • Self-replicating worms • E-mail viruses • Shellcode (scripts)
Data collection methodology • Phase 1: Malware collection • Collect as many different binaries (bots) • Phase 2: Binary analysis via gray-box testing • Analyze the sophistication of each bot • Phase 3: Longitudinal tracking of IRC botnets through IRC and DNS trackers • Monitor the pervasiveness of each bot
Malware Collection • Unpatched Windows XP are run which is base copy • Nepenthes mimics the replies generated by vulnerable services in order to collect the first stage exploit • Honeynets used to catches exploits missed by nepenthes • Infected honeypot compared with base to identify Botnet binary
Binary Analysis via graybox testing • Network fingerprint (DNS, IPs, Ports, scan) • IRC (PASS, NICK, USER, MODE, JOIN) • Learn the Botnet Dialect
Longitudinal Tracking of Botnets • The IRC tracker (also called a drone) filters traffic and acts as a Bot to trick the IRC room to iteratively probe to find the footprint of particular Botnets • Uses DNS Probing • Acts as a spy • DNS Tracking • 800,000 Name Servers
Botnet Scanning • Worm-like • Immediately start scanning the IP space looking for new victims after infection : 34 / 192 • Variable scanning Botnets • Scan when issued some command by botmaster
Botnet Phenomenon • Traffic Problem • 70% of the sources during peak periods sent shell exploits similar to those sent by the botnet spreaders. • 90% of all the traffic during a particular peak targeted ports used by botnet spreaders • the amount of botnet-related traffic is certainly greater than 27%.
Botnet Statistics • 60% were IRC bots • 70% of all the bots connect to a single IRC server • 57,000 Active Bots per day for the first 6 months of 2006 ( Symantec ) • 4.7 million distinct computers being actively used in Botnets • Most Botnets are managed by a single server ( up to 15,000 bots ) • Mocbot seized control of more than 7,700 machines within 24 hours
Botnet Characteristics • Diverse set of operating systems. • Anti-virus programs can detect and fix most bots
What is it that You say… You Do Here? • Log keystrokes for identity theft • Installing Advertisement Addons • Distributed Denial-of-Service Attacks • Spamming • Sniffing Traffic • Keylogging • Spreading new malware • Google AdSense abuse • Attacking IRC Chat Networks • Manipulating online polls/games • Mass identity theft
Bot Capabilities • DDoS: Flooding attack and DDoS extortion • Scanning Exploitation • Download and Installation • Click Fraud • Server Services- Bot Hosting e.g. phishing • Gateway and Proxy Functions:-HTTP proxy • Spyware,Keylogging, data theft and packet capture
Conclusion • “the fight against botnets is a "war" that can only be won if all parties - regulators, governments, telecoms firms, computer users and hardware and software makers - work together. “ • Botnets pose one of the most SEVERE threats to the Internet • Are responsible for most of the unwanted traffic • Generators of SPAM • Ref http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6298641.stm
Conclusion • Business Implications • DDOS – bring e-commerce to a halt • Wasting of money on SPAM filtering • Wasting of corporate time and $$
Strengths of the paper • All aspects of a botnet analyzed • No prior analysis of bots • Ability to model various types of bots • Ability to learn bot dialect and communicate with them.
Botnet • Questions ?